Green diplomacy: UK and Bangladesh celebrate climate partnership
Following Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus’s visit to the UK and a royal celebration in Dhaka, new climate collaborations signal a deepening partnership between both nations
In the face of a growing climate crisis, strong international partnerships are essential. The visit last week of Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus to the United Kingdom, including his audience with His Majesty King Charles III, stands as a powerful reflection of the depth and maturity of the UK-Bangladesh relationship — grounded in shared values and a common commitment to global climate leadership.
This week, as we celebrated The King's birthday in Dhaka, it is fitting that our theme was climate and the environment — issues His Majesty has championed for decades and which lie at the heart of the UK-Bangladesh partnership. Our chief guest at the King's Birthday Party was Syeda Rizwana Hasan, the Honourable Adviser for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, who earlier this year attended a UK event on global water security hosted by The King.
That event helped spark a new collaboration between the UK and Bangladesh Meteorological Offices, focusing on flood forecasting and early warning systems — critical tools in an era of growing climate risks.
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This collaboration reflects the broader UK-Bangladesh climate partnership. Together, we are working to unlock Bangladesh's development potential by building climate resilience and accelerating the transition to cleaner economic growth.
Earlier this year, I visited Satkhira and met communities living on the frontline of the climate crisis. I saw both the stunning natural beauty of Bangladesh and the very real threat that extreme weather poses to people's livelihoods.
With UK funding, a consortium led by CARE International is helping protect these communities — by restoring natural ecosystems and building climate-resilient infrastructure and renewable energy solutions, such as solar powered cooling, irrigation and harvesting tools. In 2023 alone, our programmes reached over 150,000 people. By 2028, we aim to support over one million people.
The UK's experience in transitioning to cleaner energy — such as phasing out coal and generating nearly a third of its electricity from wind — offers valuable lessons that we can share. One such initiative is our support for the Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority to establish the government's first national wind lab — an important resource for identifying how wind power can be scaled up in Bangladesh.
Our partnership also looks to the future. In all their meetings in London last week, our Ministers reaffirmed to the Chief Adviser the UK's support to democratic reforms in Bangladesh following last year's youth-led uprising. And just as young people called for democracy, they are also calling for climate action.
Through our eco-leaders project with the Earth, we are giving youth climate leaders a platform to pitch ideas directly to policy makers and are funding the most promising projects — such as replacing kerosene lamps with solar lanterns in coastal Mirzaganj and tackling urban air pollution in Dhaka.
More solutions and investments like these will be needed. At the Bangladesh Investment Summit in April, the UK's Trade Envoy to Bangladesh, Baroness Winterton, highlighted how British financial services expertise can help unlock climate finance in Bangladesh.
British International Investment, the UK's Development Finance Institution, and banks such as HSBC and Standard Chartered are already leading the way, offering green finance solutions to businesses across the country. Meanwhile, through our partnership with the Global Centre on Adaptation, we have been helping climate-proof over $3 billion worth of infrastructure investment in Bangladesh.
As Bangladesh prepares for LDC graduation and navigates a future with declining aid and concessional finance, domestic leadership will become increasingly important. Government-led initiatives to strengthen coordination and financing for climate action — such as the Bangladesh Climate and Development Partnership — will be essential to sustaining progress.
The UK stands ready to support Bangladesh on its journey — sharing knowledge, fostering innovation, and walking side by side towards a more prosperous, inclusive, and climate-secure future.
Sarah Cooke is the British High Commissioner to Bangladesh. Before taking up her current role, she was Head of the South East Asia Department in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.
